By Russ Britt

Reports said Tuesday that Obamacare got to the magic 7 million mark in completed signups by the time enrollment closed at midnight, and now the question is whether that figure could actually hit an even higher milestone once the stragglers are finally tallied.

White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park was quoted by American Urban Radio Network White House correspondent April D. Ryan as telling workers that the 7 million mark was reached, offering President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement some vindication after a rocky start six months ago. The Hill later picked up the news.

The difficult birth of the Affordable Care Act, in which the main enrollment website HealthCare.gov was mostly ineffective for the first two months, prompted government estimators to lower their projections on first-year signups to 6 million from 7 million.

But enrollment hit the 6 million mark last week with the heaviest enrollment days ahead. A crush of consumers flocking to the site over the weekend and on Monday meant that getting to 7 million seemed assured despite last-minute glitches on HealthCare.gov, many related to heavy traffic.

Now the question is whether those who started the process and will be allowed to finish after the deadline can push enrollment past another milestone.

Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters tweeted early Tuesday that in all, there were 4.8 million visits to HealthCare.gov and nearly 2 million calls were made to call centers handling enrollment.

It’s unclear, though, how many of those were repeat visitors and how many were unable to complete enrollment. HHS officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

President Obama was scheduled to speak to reporters on the health-care initiative at 4:15 p.m. Eastern.

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Health Exchange guides investors to the crucial market intelligence they need to keep up with the health care industry, which makes up one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Anchored by Russ Britt, Health Exchange is the essential site for those looking for the most important news, data and analysis on the sector. You can reach Russ at Rbritt@marketwatch.com.